Sorry to break it to you, but it seems the zombie apocalypse is kinda inevitable, so we’ll be learning about that. (Time to have a drink or three!) But before we all become the undead, won’t it be nice to learn how to make a few killer paper airplanes? Or maybe escape our zombified fate entirely by hacking our way off this planet? Come celebrate the cruelest month with drinks, music, and, oh yeah, learnin’! Be there and be square!

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“Plane Crazy: The Unexpurgated Tale of the Record-Breaking Paper Airplane Guy” by John Collins

John Collins, a.k.a. The Paper Airplane Guy, smashed the Guinness world record for paper airplane distance in 2012. Along the way, NASA snubbed him, the previous world record holder tried to sabotage him, and people plied him with ideas both weird and wonderful. This paper-folding raconteur who has taught thousands of people to make paper airplanes will teach us, too. Wear your safety goggles if you don’t want the pointy end of a plane in yer eye!

John is the author of three published collections of paper airplanes: The Gliding Flight; Fantastic Flight; and The New World Champion Paper Airplane Book, published last month, which chronicles the record chase, the breakthrough plane, and 20 more great designs.

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“They Will Kill You, Eat You, and Turn You: Zombies, the Next Great Thing in Research!” by Joseph Chen

Stem cell research is cool, but it will inevitably cause the Zombie Apocalypse. And what we’ll face won’t be the slow, decayed, shambling undead that are easy to dismember. Instead, we’ll get the fast, angry, genetically modified zombies without inhibitions or memories. They will want to eat your brains. They will kill you. They will infect you.

Joseph is a postdoc at UCSF, working primarily on HIV, and also a part of a team of researchers developing adult stem cells for therapeutic purposes. Previously, he worked for Merck and Schering Plough, where he developed treatment strategies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

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“The Hacker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Ariel Waldman

Don’t panic: The next big science revolution isn’t just for asteroid miners. Just as science fiction has often shown the way to future inventions, hacking is now generating prototypes that will act as footholds for future explorations, discoveries, and epiphanies in science. Find out how you can actively explore the final frontier by getting excited and making things.

Ariel Waldman is the global instigator of Science Hack Day, a research affiliate at Institute for the Future, and the founder of Spacehack.org, a directory of ways to participate in space exploration. Recently Ariel was appointed as an NRC committee member of a congressional study on the future of human spaceflight.

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DJ Alpha Bravo mans the decks, spinning vinyl and tweeting along to the presentations’ themes. Find out what you’re listening to by following @djalphabravo.